Maxifantasincredulous action at 41st Annual Texas Open 9-ball championship. Great 9-ball pool action finished Tuesday morning September 2nd as 128 elite players from around the US and Texas competed for over $10,000 in Open Division prizes at the longest running 9-ball tournament in US history in Round Rock, TX at Skinny Bobs billiards, but this time no one was going to sleep at the end. The big story was the super play of the newcomers and local players. After 16 years, James Davis Jr (Austin) had his best finish losing to Sean King (Oklahoma City) in the quarter-finals to grab 4th place. The match went back and forth, but Sean got the break he needed to face Rob Saez in the Semi-finals. Sean is a Desert-storm vet making his first Texas Open appearance. Sean never trailed the entire match, but broke dry Hill-7. Rob and Sean were wearing the same shade of red shirt, but Sean is a little taller but it was difficult to tell them apart at a distance. But luckily I was sitting up close and personal to the action on the Gold Crown 9-foot tables. Rob was hooked on the 1 ball and had to jump to make the 1 ball and drew it back perfectly for shape on the 2 ball, then made perfect shots back-to-back, including a 3 ball bank to side pocket to tie the match 8-8. Rob made the 1 ball on the break and ran to the 8 but the cue ball ran a little too long. After cutting the 8b thin to corner, the cue ball hit the edge of the side pocket preventing perfect shape on the 9. Rob had missed a 9 when it was tied 5-5 with similar shape, but this time he made it. The crowd erupted in appreciation for both players who played their hearts out for the respectful crowd of about 150 patrons. Rob was kicked to the elimination side by Charlie Bryant (Houston) in the hot-seat match and had to win twice if he was to claim the championship a second time in 4 years. Charlie Bryant was down 5-7 when Bryant breaks dry (nothing falls). Rob cuts the 1 thin to the corner, and cue ball runs too far for good shape on 2. The 2 and 7 were tied up on the side rail, and he plays a carom to pocket the 7 ball. He kicks the 2 ball two rails for side pocket and it falls but the 3 ball is hooked, and he kicks it safe leaving cue ball hidden behind the 8 and the 3 is near the 9 ball. Bryant is hooked on the 3 ball after the classic Rob Saez safety he had been making successfully all weekend. Bryant made a seemingly impossible jump-carom 3-9 ball combination across the length of the table to pocket the 9 in the corner pocket, The crowd goes wild! And yes he did plan it; it was not luck. Holy 9-ball combination batman! Maxifantasincredulous! Really, there ain’t enough superlatives in the Texas book to describe how great that shot was, y’all. ;-) The finals game-1 match was nearing the 2-hour mark and Bryant was down 7-8 when Rob breaks and makes the 7. Rob runs to the 9 and cue ball runs long of perfect shape. He makes the 9 in the corner but the cue ball spins off the side rail and falls in the top right-hand corner pocket for a foul and loss of game. And yes Bryant did yell “Hillbilly-on-the-hill after all!” Bryant breaks and makes the 5 but the 1 appears to be hooked because the 6 and 7 are tied up with the cue ball. But Bryant cuts the 1 thin enough the make it in the corner, but the cue ball kisses the 4 ball near the side pocket on its way to the 2 ball and almost scratches. His shape comes up short, but he cuts the 2 ball that was frozen against the side rail down the rail to the corner with perfect speed and angle, and makes the 6-7 combo, then has perfect position on the 8 ball. He makes a fist pump after making the 6-ball and points to the sky to thank the heavens for his good fortune after the 9 ball is made after perfect shape. He was presented with the trophy at 2:20am Tuesday morning and smiling under that huge grizzly hillbilly beard. But all players deserve a tremendous amount of applause for fantastic action all weekend and cancel that sleeping pill order, they might sleep till next month. 2012/2013 Women’s Classic champion Vivian “The Texas Tornado” Villarreal (San Antonio, TX) faced a rematch of the hot-seat match against Julie Comitini in their race-to-7 final game 1. Vivian won the 1st meeting 7-4, and had to sit a while waiting for the elimination side final to finish. That game went hill-hill with Belinda Calhoun getting an early lead, but Julie kept her head down and stayed focused to come from behind. But she couldnt get enough height on a jump shot in the Hill-1 game after an amazing safety by Vivian. Vivian had to break up a 7/8/9 tie-up to get shape and run out that last game to win 7-1 and claim her third Women’s championship in a row! Another big story that had everybody talking was popular young-gun player Junior Jueco (Austin, TX) who beat favorite 2012 champion Chip Compton (Oklahoma City) in a late Sunday winner-side match after being down 0-7. He won 9 in a row and will be an instant classic replay match on the PoolactionTV recordings. Jueco lost to Sean King and received the 7-8 place prizes. Jueco looks like he has so much fun when he plays week after week. Congratulations to all!
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 09:18:55 +0000
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